Project Hope

As dusk falls outside the Kenyan town of Nyeri, barefoot children emerge from thatch-roofed houses to watch a group of runners descend one of the town's main roads, a narrow, muddy track. "Jambo! Jambo!" The children shout their greetings in Kiswahili, like tiny paparazzi chasing a bunch of rock stars. The runners smile shyly and continue on their way. Stardom is a new thing for them. Though the region is home to some of Kenya's endurance greats, these athletes aren't famous--yet.

The runners, between 8 and 23 years old, are orphans from Tumaini Children's Home and members of Hope Runs, a fledgling organization founded in March by Stanford University grads Lara Vogel and Claire A. Williams, both 25. Hope Runs uses running as a way to raise the self-esteem of healthy children whose parents have died of AIDS in this impoverished town, and eventually in others like it around the world (Argentina is likely the next locale). The women also want to create volunteer opportunities akin to Habitat for Humanity so people can run with the kids and help with reading programs and music lessons.

In a town where a person with one pair of plastic flip-flops is considered well heeled, the Tumaini kids prize their high-end running kicks. The shoes have an off-the-shelf iridescence despite two months in Africa's thick red mud. "Their running shoes are usually wet because they wash them," says Vogel, who, together with Williams, brought the shoes donated by From Our Feet in Palo Alto, California. "The shoes are new or practically new, and the kids cherish them. They don't want to wear them running. They wear them to church."

Tumaini (which means "hope" in Kiswahili) was started by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in 1999 when severe drought coincided with an upsurge in HIV/AIDS and the town's elders began to notice that extended families were no longer able to care for orphans. The whole society seemed to unravel--crime rates rose, children were living in the homes of their dead parents. Many of the 171 children at the orphanage have survived homelessness, rape, and abuse.

Williams and Vogel knew that they wanted to do something for these kids after visiting the area last fall. They just weren't sure what they had to offer. The Gift of Running

When Vogel, who has degrees in human biology and international public health, met Williams, who studied history and cultural anthropology, in college, neither was much of a runner.

That changed postgraduation, when the two friends decided to travel the world and stopped in Spain for April's Madrid Marathon. By the time they arrived in Kenya last November, they were committed runners with plans to use their newfound athleticism to summit Mt. Kenya. They stayed at Tumaini overnight and never left--not even to climb the mountain. It was hardly a failed mission: Hope Runs emerged from the visit.

"The young are dying and the old like me are left to care for the children," says Anna Kariuki, one of Tumaini's founders. "But these two girls have done us proud. They have energy. It's something new, and it's exciting."

Four days a week, Vogel and Williams lead the kids on after-school runs. Twenty-one of them plan to compete in Kenya's Safaricom Marathon and Half-Marathon with Vogel and Williams in June. Most are preparing for the Hope Runs 10-K in Nyeri July 8, a fund-raiser for the orphanage.

Out on their run, the Tumaini children seem like happy kids anywhere. They race, cheer to keep each other going, complain of foot "injuries" that manifest on the uphills and suddenly vanish on flatter ground. As they stretch, the kids jabber about their training. Later, they'll blog about it (tumainikids.blogspot.com).

They haven't always been this way though. Williams and Vogel gape in astonishment as a 10-year-old named Mary bobs her head from side to side and shakes her behind, showing off a few Kikuyu dance moves before setting out on a run. "When she came here, she would not speak to anyone," Williams says. "A few weeks ago she never would have done that dance."

The program has caught the eye of 1988 Olympic gold medalist John Ngugi, who formed his training habits as a child running to and from school in these same hills. Long-distance running, Ngugi points out, is about struggling through pain and not giving up. These children have already proven how powerful they are. "You don't know," he says. "In a few years you could see a champion from Tumaini."

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